Ive got 11 brothers and sisters and my dad owned a bar, ive got brothers and sisters on every rung of the economic ladder and the idea of an Opportunity Society is to i was. Of the 1970s and ,980s, these two people especially during the 1970s, by the end of the 1970s, i was a republican i have a Ronald Reagan Bumper Sticker on a 1980 in the primary, sorry jeb, [laughter] in 1980 eight, i found myself in manchester, New Hampshire, joe and, if you will recall and in february of 1988, a lowly state rep, business guy go to manchester, New Hampshire to help my buddy jack kemp. With jackhis dinner and joanne and a bunch of these really bigtime congressman. The next day, i got my assignment to go knock on doors and i was assigned to go to the city dump. I thought what the hell is this . I went to the dump because in manchester, New Hampshire, you up, yout garbage picked go to the dump. I stood in the dump, called a confederate 1988 shaking hands with all the people coming to bring their garba
Thank you all for being here. And heather, we honor you today. You were there all along guiding and ack anying tom across all the peaks and the valleys right to the end. E thank you for your spirit, your generosity and your example as h enlivened this house well as your own for many years. Welcome back. Inempty it ismous ironic he ran for congress in the first place. He actually did it in a moment of anger. The day was july 16, 1964. The beetles had just returned to liverpool after their first u. S. Tour. President johnson had recently signed the Civil Rights Act and was on his way to a landslide victory that november. And a 35yearold tom foley was having lunch in downtown spo can. A gifted lawyer from a prominent local family and trusted aid to Scoop Jackson. Some mentioned to the guys he was eating lunch with he was thinking seriously about running for congress, not this time but the next time around. At which point one of his lynch companions bluntly dismissed the idea out of hand a
So he and friends hitchhiked to a service station to get it fixed. As they approached the outskirts of the city, they ran out of gas. So they pushed the car up the hill, coasting into town just before the deadline. Tom went on to win the race by a resounding 54 votes. There is no question there may have been some luck of the irish operating when it came to tom foley, as well as incredible stamina. What led him to make history as the first speaker of the house from west of the rockies was not luck. It was his hard work. His deep integrity. And is powerful intellect. As michael so eloquently and movingly stated, his ability to find Common Ground with his colleagues across the aisle. It was his personal decency that helped him bring stability and order to a congress that demanded most both, and still does. It brings me to a final point. At a time when our political system can seem more polarized and more divided than ever before, it can be tempting to see the possibility of bipartisan pro